"Building Through The Battle" | Nehemiah 4 | Pastor Israel

Good evening again. Would you open with me your

Bible in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah?

We've been studying through the book of Nehemiah.

We find ourselves tonight in chapter 4 and just talking with

somebody this morning, and each time that I study a book of the

Bible, I find myself saying it's my favourite book.

It's my favourite book and I'm definitely enjoying our study

through Nehemiah. God's Word is so wonderful, so

amazing, so pertinent and applicable and relevant to our

lives today. It's the living, breathing Word

of God. And that's why we honour God's

Word. That's why we open it and have

him teach and speak to us through His Holy Spirit.

And so Nehemiah chapter 4 tonight, the title of the

Nehemiah 4 · chapter mention

message is building through the battle.

So it's how you and I as God's people are able to overcome

opposition and discouragement because here's what you've

probably discovered just as much as I have.

And that is that when you have commenced or begun something in

your what with God, with a, with a real passionate and a real

desire to serve him in and through it.

Maybe it's a fresh start in your marriage.

Perhaps it's a renewed commitment to prayer.

And we're about to have a new year upon us and we'll make many

New Year's resolutions, a new ministry idea maybe, or even

just a a personal resolve to, to break a sinful habit, to be free

from that in your life. And no sooner does that desire

birth within you, then it seems that there is opposition and

resistance against that. No sooner do you seem to try to

rebuild some area where everything almost seems to push

back and work against that in your life.

And you can guarantee that no sooner do you begin to become

serious about something with God that the enemy desires to

counteract that, to block that, to, to resist that, to bring an

end to it. You may or may not know this in

1937 during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San

Francisco. And I've been there personally.

It's just this massive engineering feat.

And some of you have probably visualised it in person.

Certainly you've seen it in movies or in pictures, but the

first half of the project of this building was marred

terribly by tragedy. 23 workers fell to their death during the

beginning parts of the construction.

And so you can understand as a consequence of that, that morale

amongst the workers was pretty low.

Fear dominated the site. Then halfway through the

project, something changed. That attitude changed that work

ethic and approach. Engineers built a large safety

net, the largest ever made, and suspended it under the workers

as they were completing their task.

And it saved 10 more lives. So 10 fellows fell and landed in

that net, and they would have been so grateful and thankful

for that, you can imagine. But the most remarkable outcome

of having that safety net in place now was that the project

finished some 75% faster than they had anticipated because of

the consequence of that net being there.

Why is that, do you wonder? I would submit and it's

something that we're going to lead into in our passage

tonight, is that once the fear was removed for the workers that

they now built with greater confidence as a consequence,

desired to put their hand all the more to the task, knowing

that they were safe from having fallen to their death as a

consequence of the task before them.

So Nehemiah chapter 4 Now moving to that is the story that will

Nehemiah 4 · chapter mention

read of God installing what we could call his own safety net

for the workers of the wall of the city of Jerusalem and his

people here. They're going to encounter fear

and opposition. We've already had hints of that,

but it really intensifies in the chapter before us tonight.

And it's not that God removes the opposition for them.

It's not that that is eliminated and that they conduct the

business of the rebuild of Jerusalem with without any

opposition. No, that's not the case.

But what is the case is that God strengthens them in the midst of

their task and the work before them and the opposition that

they're experiencing. Again, the Jews, they're

rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

The goal is to restore security, to re establish the identity of

God's people in the land. The the worship of God

ultimately leading towards the temple being rebuilt and of

reclaiming an identity as God's people representing him and

loving him and being a point of attraction to the surrounding

nations. But at this point in time in the

history of the people of Israel, there are a land and a people of

derision, and it flows on to the God that they purport to be of

and to serve. But now as Nehemiah has come

onto the scene and there's this sense of revival stirring up

amongst the people, and they put their hand to the work of the

task that we looked at last week in chapter 3.

The work is moving forward beautifully.

In verse 6, we see of chapter 4. And if we were to have it be

etched in film, you could imagine the type of musical

score that's at work here and just this sense of optimism and

hope in their midst. But then suddenly conflict

arises, opposition intensifies and discouragement starts to

spread amongst the people and fear begins to take root in

their hearts to the point that many are ready to abandon the

task altogether. It's all too hard, it's all too

difficult. Let's stop this.

The enemy comes against them and seeks to frustrate the plans of

the people of God at this point in time.

But what we'll see by the end of the chapter when we get to it,

is that the people somehow stand firm, somehow the work

continues, and somehow the enemy's plans are frustrated.

So we want to look at what that somehow is or who that somehow

is. So here's the main idea of the

passage before us and the message tonight.

When God's people engage in God's work, they will face real

opposition and deep discouragement, but by God's

strength, God's truth, and God's help, they can persevere with

courage and finish the work. So that's that's up on the

screen for you if you're taking note.

And here's how we're going to move through this chapter.

As we look at the verses ahead, we need to, if we have any kind

of opposition, any kind of discouragement, take a hold of

us when we're desirous of, of just moving ahead in the things

of God in our lives and just living for him and honouring

him. Then when that comes, we need to

recognise the reality that there will be opposition and and not

see it as altogether foreign or or weird that it's happening

that secondly, we need to identify what those routes of

discouragement are and we'll see them through and I think we'll

relate with the common causes of discouragement that came upon

them because they come upon us importantly.

Lastly, we won't want to be able to apply the remedies for

victory, to be able to overcome the opposition, to overcome the

discouragement that sometimes takes root in our hearts, and to

be able to to live for the Lord and honour him with our lives.

So let's walk through these together.

Let's consider the first in verses one through to 8 to

recognise the reality of opposition in our lives.

It's so important, but it so happened.

Verse one, I'm reading from the New King James Version when Sam

Ballot, we've been introduced to to this fellow already, He's the

head honcho of the opposition for the people of Israel.

Now when Sam Ballot heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he

was furious and very indignant and mocked the Jews.

And he spoke, verse 2 before his brethren and the army of Samaria

and said, what are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices?

Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from

the heaps of rubbish stones that are burned?

And his words here, you can tell, are just dripping with

mockery. And then verse 3, Tobiah is like

that, that dorky sidekick that we so often see in the movies.

Yeah. And you can imagine him popping

up here after Sam, Sam Bell has said these things.

And he's. Yeah, whatever they build, if

even a fox goes up on a, he'll break down their Stonewall.

That's how I picture this guy talking here.

Oh, God. Now, Nehemiah responds, verse 4,

For we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own

heads and give them as plunder to a land of captivity.

Do not cover their iniquity. Do not let their sin be blotted

out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger

before the builders. So we built the wall, verse 6,

and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height.

So that's some significant progress for the people had a

mind to work. Now it happened, verse 7 when

Sam Bellot Tobiah, and then it says now the Arabs, the

Ammonites, the Astridites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were

being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that

they became very angry. And all of them, verse 8,

conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create

confusion. So now it's escalated from words

and mockery to to now physical expressions of we've got to

attack them and defeat them to stop the work.

So let's consider this and our point again.

Recognise the reality that opposition, if you're a follower

of Jesus Christ, if your desire is to live your life according

to God's word and what he has outlined in it, you are to

expect opposition. There will be resistance and

challenge to that. To grow spiritually, to repair

broken areas of your life, to again strengthen your marriage

to to raise your children after the things of the Lord, or to

allow faith to take hold in your life where you consider ministry

seriously, you must expect resistance.

In fact, Jesus told us that, didn't he?

He said, look, to paraphrase, they were against me and they

will be against you. He said to his disciples and the

flow on is to you and I as his disciples today.

In other words, Jesus says to you and I tonight opposition is

a given. It's a guarantee expected.

They had opposition here in Nehemiah 4 and there's this very

predictable pattern all through the scriptures whenever God is

at work, Satan just doesn't go Oh that's great God.

I'll I'll give you a Barley's I'll allow you you to, you know,

have your people work in and through this.

You know, the enemy attacks seeks to stop it to stir up

opposition. And it's very common what we

experience as to what they experience.

Often opposition comes through words, through mockery and

through ridicule. San ballot here we read of him.

It says that he effectively explodes with rage.

That's the description, verse one.

The Hebrew words indicate that this anger that he has is like

this boiling, kind of snorting, fuming anger that's come on him.

You ever had somebody do that when you've expressed the name

of Jesus to them and there's just been this almost like

volatile physical reaction in the way that they've articulated

the words. Don't say there's Jesus near me.

This is Sam Bell. And then he stands before his

army of Samaria and he mocks the Jews.

What are these feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore the wall? Will they offer sacrifices?

He cries out. Will they finish in a day?

Can they revive the burn stones? I mean, look at the building

material that they're trying to use.

It's just burnt out rubble. He's pointing out all of these

things and using his voice and mock mockery and ridicule.

And as I said to Bayer, that the sidekick just pipes up and

throws out this line with reference to the Fox boxes.

And so really what is in these words, in this ridicule is, is

targeting the people of Jerusalem in these ways, their

identity. They're feeble.

Look at these feeble, weak Jews. Their skill.

What do they know? Look at them trying to build the

wall. They can't do it.

They can't even tie their own shoelaces.

You can imagine all of those sorts of things being thrown

out. The words attack their faith.

Will they offer sacrifices? Is that what they're trying to

do? They're trying to restore

worship in the land. He attacks with his words, their

resources. Look at these burned stones that

they're trying to build these walls up with.

And then he attacks the future. They think that this wall is

going to last. This won't even last a day.

It's the idea behind it, ridicule in your, in my, in

their lives. Haven't you found that's often

Satan's first weapon against us? It's the language of the devil.

It's what's coming through here in this opposition.

I don't know about you, but I would hazard a guess that if I

would ask, have you ever been mocked?

Have you ever been ridiculed for being a follower of Jesus?

You don't believe that Bible nonsense, do you?

I mean, who can trust it anyway? I mean, it's just all inventions

of man. And it's so antiquated and so

outdated. And maybe if you've been

desiring to honour God with some of the life choices that you're

making as you read the Word and you want to be obedient to him

and somebody points out and says, you, you, you're trying to

change your life, that'll last a week.

Now all of a sudden you think the Bible's real and you're

going to live that out and be obedient to that.

And it, and it hurts this, this ridicule, this scorn because it

seeks to mock our insecurities and cause us the doubt and the

question. But then if that doesn't work,

what happens is what we see happen here is it escalates and

opposition intensifies and can become physical.

But certainly what will happen is that there's this thing where

where if if an enemy in their goals to attack isn't

successful, what do they do? They start to bring in others

and find others who agree with them, and then all of a sudden

these people who were at once enemies become united in their

opposition against you because of your, your obedience to

following Jesus Christ. And that happened here, verses 7

and 8. The conflict, as I say,

escalates. We have the Samaritans in the

north, we have the Ammonites in the east, the Arabs in the

South, and then the Astridites from the West.

So Jerusalem is fully surrounded by those who are in opposition

against them. Sounds eerily similar to today.

You know, groups it's so common that are normally opposed to

each other often unite to stop the work of God.

Warren Wisby observes this. He says God's people sometimes

struggle to work together, but the enemy never seems to

struggle to unite against God's work.

It's an interesting observation. So we will encounter opposition.

It might be words at it, it may be physical, it might be a

united front of opposition that comes against us.

But what are we to do with that knowledge?

I want you to tonight to to see it as a sign not that you're

doing something wrong. It's often evidence that you're

finally doing something right, that God is working in you and

through you. You know when you decide to

rebuild your faith, the enemy becomes furious.

When you start wanting to repair your marriage, you can expect

resistance and opposition in that.

When you take holiness and desire to live a pure life in

obedience under God, you take that seriously.

Whispers of you'll never change. You're kidding yourself.

They'll rise up. And when a church strengthens

its ministry efforts in certain areas, you can you can

understand and expect that new tensions will emerge.

The devil is perfectly happy with a lukewarm Christian at the

moment you decide to rebuild what sin has broken.

Oh, his rage is ignited. And that's what's going on here.

So what do we do? What we do is we imitate

Nehemiah. What does Nehemiah do when this

opposition arises and escalates again, verse 4 hear us, O God.

He takes it to the Lord in prayer.

He prays not argues against them.

He doesn't get onto his social media and I'll show them and and

retaliate to every every jibe and Barb that's been thrown at

them. He talks to God, not to his

critics. He talks to the Lord about it.

Hear us. Oh God, I bring you this

situation and what is going on. And he mentions, you know, what

is taking place. No doubt.

I, I imagine Sam Bellot's name pops up in Nehemiah's prayer and

Tobiah and, and again, and, and that's what you and I need to

do. When that opposition comes, we

bring it to the Lord in prayer. So expect opposition and take

that opposition to God and see what he does with it as we move

ahead. I want us to be able to identify

something that happened here because it happens in our lives.

Because many times when opposition comes, we'd like to

think that we're very stoic and brave and and admirable in our

conduct against that. But you know what happens when

conflict comes, when resistance comes against us, we take a hit,

don't we? We get discouraged, we get

deflated. And so I want us to be able to

identify the roots of that discouragement in our lives

because they're they're evident here in the people's response to

this opposition. Verses 9 to 12.

Nevertheless, we made our prayer to our God and because of them,

we set a watch against them day and night.

And then Judah, now Judah, anytime Judah is mentioned, this

is the the tribe that is to be understood as kind of the the

best of the best. And if Juda is impacted, if the

leadership of Juda is starting to become discouraged or

fearful, then it's indicative of of that having spread amongst

the rest of the people. It's kind of like the captain of

a team starting to doubt whether they can be a premiership

contender. If we were to put it into

sporting terms, you know, when those interviews happen and they

asked, you know, So what do you think of your chances this year?

And if the captain of the team said, yeah, I don't think we're

going to to win very much. And that's going to be a thing

where Right. So now if Judah pipes up and

says, as they do here, the strength of the labourers is

failing and there is so much rubbish that we're not able to

rebuild the wall. Verse 10.

And our adversary said they wouldn't either know nor see

anything till we come into their midst and kill them and cause

the work to cease. And so it was verse 12 when the

Jews who dwelt near them came, that they told us 10 times from

whatever place you turn there will be upon us.

So the external opposition here, as we pause for a moment,

triggers internal discouragement in the people.

It's then verbalised from the tribe of Judah in particular.

Just as it happens in our lives, you know, we get pressure from

the outside. And often it produces despair on

the inside. We might not express it and,

and, and word it, but you know, people will look at us and go,

what, what's wrong with you? And why are you sort of down

and, and, and, and our visage takes a hit.

Our body language expresses that something's going on with us as

a consequence of the opposition. Verse 10, I think is one of the

most honest statements in the whole book.

Here it says the strength of the labourers is giving out.

There's so much rubbish that we cannot build the wall, they say.

So I want us to see four roots of discouragement that surface

here in the text and for us to be aware of in our lives too.

Because I think if we're, if we're honest, we would see that

yes, that that happens to me and I and it annoys me that it does.

And I want to change that. I want to be better able to to

live my life for God without this taking a hold of me in such

situations. So in verse 10, the first thing

and again these notes are up on the slide, is that fatigue can

often be a cause and a route of this.

They're they're exhausted. Here it said that the strength

of the labourers is giving out. You imagine having built the the

way that they have up to verse 6 where it says that half of the

wall is complete. And it's like this almost 24/7

effort that's been going on the families and maybe eating on the

run and just the the perspiration and the endeavour

and the effort and, and it all started with this wonderful

bang. And yeah, we can do it.

Let's rebuild the wall and, and everybody's just chipping in

and, and putting their hand. And this adrenaline of the new

beginnings has now faded for them.

And in our lives, I think this is where many of us as

believers, we hit the halfway point of things and we quit as

fatigue takes a hold halfway through a marriage repair,

halfway through again, you know, New Year's resolution.

I'm going to read the Bible every day and, and man, we get

fatigued. You know, we, we restart work

after the holidays and the grind of the 9:00 to 5:00 and I'm just

so tired the halfway through a recovery or halfway through a

ministry involvement. I'll sign up, sign me up for

that. I'm I'm all about serving the

Lord and then I'm just tired. I'm just worn out and or halfway

through parenting challenges, Man, we just really need to just

help our son or our daughter in this and this, this way.

And, and things go good for a while and we build the wall to

the halfway point. And then all of a sudden what

was working is not and it's oh, it's all too hard and fatigue

says I just can't do this anymore.

You ever had that ever experienced that?

And because they're fatigued, you know what they do instead of

looking at the the wall halfway built and celebrating that they

go, we can't go on. And they're discouraged.

And that discouragement now that fatigue starts to lead to

frustration. There's so much rubbish they say

in verse 10. And now, instead of seeing the

progress made, all that they see is the rubble that's left still,

You know, before completing any of the building, they'd have to

remove broken stones and the hardened mortar and all of the

debris and everything that's lying around in these ruins.

But now the debris looks far bigger than any progress that

they've made up until this point.

The debris was a challenge. And, yeah, we can do it.

Let's move this out, and let's use that to rebuild this wall.

And now they're looking at the rubble going.

I quit. I'm done.

I'm through. I'm finished.

There's so much rubbish, you know, in the Christian life.

What does rubbish look like? It looks like unresolved sin.

You know, I just feel like I'm, I'm praying to God and I'm

confessing this sin and I promise him I'll never do it

again. I'll never do it again.

And sure enough, I do it again. And, and the rubble of that is

all that we see of unhealthy relationships or of cluttered

schedules and the busyness of life, especially at this time of

year and emotional baggage or, or past wounds that we carry.

And you know, here's what happens in those circumstances.

And, and when that discouragement is what's taken a

hold of us is when we focus on the rubble, we lose sight of the

Redeemer, we lose sight of God and we're discouraged through

the frustration that's maybe come about as a consequence of

fatigue. And and then it flows on into

failure for us. We can't rebuild the wall, they

say in verse 10. And these same people who in

verse six said that they worked with all of their heart.

Now they declare we're not able where one time they felt that

they could do it and everybody was on board.

Now the next day this this opposition, these challenges

have come upon them and we can't do it anymore.

And what they've done here is they've agreed with the lies of

the enemy, they've internalised the mockery, and they've allowed

that that wording to now become a part of their identity.

Yeah, we're they're right. We, we can't build the war.

And we're just kidding ourselves if we think we're going to be

able to offer sacrifices and worship God.

And we are just feeble Jews. And Sam Bellot's right.

And we're just stupid for continuing this work and let's

just stop all together. I knew we shouldn't have tried.

And they believe all of these lies of impossibility.

And this happens in our lives too, doesn't it?

When we when we start to measure the task ahead by our own

strength. And the reality is that we can't

do it in and of ourselves. We need God's help.

And we forget the calling and the promises of God and we start

to compare ourselves to others and maybe we expect instant

results. And so this failure thinking

starts to paralyse any progress. And then lastly, fear takes a

hold. Wherever you turn, wherever we

go, they're going to attack us. Doesn't matter if I'm going down

to the marketplace or down to the river to draw the water or

or whatever. You know, they'll, they'll come

upon us and we're, we're doomed and we're done for.

Many times fear multiplies faster than faith in our lives.

And it's said that the Jews living near the enemy repeated

the rumour 10 times. This is what fear does often.

It exaggerates threats, minimises who God is.

It amplifies uncertainty. It freezes obedience in our

lives. And so in reality here, with

this fear gripping their hearts, here's here's what's true.

Satan didn't need to attack them because fear was causing them to

stop. So in your, in your life, in, in

my life, ask as we think of this and opposition's come to us, you

know, am I, am I tired, am I fatigued?

Am I, am I physically just drained and worn out?

Am I frustrated by the rubbish? Am I being governed by fear?

And sometimes discouragement can be like that.

And it's very common to us, and it's certainly the case here.

And wasn't something that they just dealt with once only.

Yeah, we can be discouraged and you can say, yeah, I was

discouraged once. No, you'll be discouraged again

and again. It's a it's a recurring thing

that we constantly have to deal with.

It can be contagious, too. Oh, you're discouraged.

Yeah, I'm discouraged too. Let me tell you about what's

going on in my life. Oh, that is bad.

We start to just accelerate it all the more.

And. And haven't you found others can

buy into discouragement pretty easily?

But here's the last thing for us, discouragement is also

curable and and they they obtain victory through God's hand and

help in this. We're going to read now from

verse 13 through to the end of the chapter and finish on this

last point. With that, therefore, Nehemiah

speaking, I position men behind the lower parts of the wall at

the openings, and I set the people according to their

families with their swords, their Spears, and their bows.

And I looked verse 14 and arose and said to the nobles, to the

leaders, to the rest of the people, do not be afraid of

them. Remember the Lord great and

awesome and fight for your brethren, your sons, your

daughters, your wives, and your houses.

And it happened, verse 15, when our enemies heard that it was

known to us and that I've underlined this, that God had

brought their plot to nothing, that all of us returned to the

wall, everyone to his work. And so it was from that time on

that half of my servants worked at construction, or the other

half held the Spears, the Shields, the bows, and wore

armour. And the leaders were behind all

the House of Judah, those who built on the wall and those who

carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand

they worked at construction and with the other held a weapon.

That's pretty awesome. It's like the sword in one hand

and the trowel in the other. Every one of the builders had

his sword, verse 18, girded at his side as he built.

And the one who surrounded the trumpet was beside me.

Then I said to the nobles, verse 19, the rulers, the rest of the

people, the work is great and extensive.

We're separated far from one another on the wall.

So whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet rally to us

there, our God will fight for us.

So in other words, if it happens that they attack us over here

and you hear the trumpet come and let's all gather together

and, and resist and fight over there and vice versa.

So there's all these plans and processes put in place by

Nehemiah here. And so, verse 21, we laboured in

the work, and half of the men held the Spears from Daybreak

until the stars appeared. At the same time I also said to

the people, Let each man and his servant stay at night in

Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night, and a working

party by day. So neither I, my brethren, my

servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, took off

our clothes, except that everyone took them off for

washing. In other words, they lived, ate,

breathed with their boots on, constantly ready for the work

and the possibility of attack should it come.

So, Nehemiah, what's his response in this?

And how is the victory won in this opposition that's

encountered? No, Nehemiah, he's not panicked.

He hasn't withdrawn from his responsibility.

All right, see, everyone, I'm. I'm off.

Back to Persia. That's me.

Done. This cupbearer business sounds a

whole lot better than what I'm dealing with here.

No, there's none of that. And at this point in time, he

doesn't rebuke the people. He leads with this God infused

clarity, this conviction of the call that God has upon him and

the remedies that are evident here that I want us to to focus

on and highlight are I think a spirit filled pattern for all of

us tonight. There's a reordering that

happens. It says I position men verse 13

and by the families. So he's reorganising the people

having the families serve together.

The the weapons are assigned and the vulnerable points in the

wall are reinforced and and guard duty has established very

practical things put in place here.

But what I want us to understand in, in this, in what's going on

in the application, the connection to our lives is this

when discouraged, don't quit. If God's calling you to

something to to focus in to press into the things of God

more deeply and more more earnestly and more urgently in

your life and, and discouragement's coming and, and

you're tempted to go, well, see, I've tried all of this and it's

not working. No, don't be discouraged, but

instead take a, a lesson out of Nehemiah here.

Reorganise your life around what matters.

It may be practically that that you, as a consequence, need to

rearrange your schedule in your week or in your day to protect

spiritual disciplines. You know, instead of me doing

this at this time, I'm going to set that time aside to be in

church. I'm going to set that time aside

to open up God's word or to to listen to those message podcasts

or to turn on the worship music and and have that take my

discouragement away and further can convict in my life the call

that God has placed upon me. It might be the re establishment

of family rhythms of worship and of devotion in the home or the

removal of distractions in your life or the invitation of

accountability. Hey, what would you, would you

as a friend just sort of ring me every day and, and just call me

and say, Hey, have you read your word today?

Have you read God's word today? And would you be a, can I be

accountable to you in that way? And, and these are ways that you

reorder your life to be about the importance of living life

for God and do not allow discouragement to take a hold

again. Sometimes the issue is not the

size of the task, but the structure of our lives.

So Nehemiah, he reorders the people, sets them up practically

in different parts and spots. And then I love this next one.

He says, remember, remember what?

Take your eyes off the rubble. Take your ears away from what

the enemy is saying. And here's what I want you to

do. Remember the Lord, remember God,

who it is that that we're called to be a part of what he is

doing. Remember the Lord who is great

and awesome. Verse 14, and I think this verse

is the heart of the chapter. He shifts their eyes again to

focus not on the rubbish, not on the enemies, not on their

threats, not on their lack of strength or the enemy's apparent

strength. But here's what he says.

Focus on God. Remember God, remember the Lord

who is great and awesome, He says, and I think that echoes

Deuteronomy 10, verse 17, a reminder of the mighty deliverer

Deuteronomy 10:17

that woke you up, didn't it? And so for you and I and allies,

we need to remember God's power, the God who spoke the earth into

existence and the heavens were made and the earth was made.

That's the God that we need to remember, the God who performed

miracles in the Old Testament, of Jesus in the New Testament,

who rose again three days later. Remember his promises.

Think of all of the fulfilled prophecies throughout Scripture.

We we learnt of some this morning.

It's the same God that is alive and real today.

Remember that God remember his past faithfulness specifically

in your life where God has miraculously intervened in

individual circumstances in your life and go, OK, if he's done

that in the past, why won't he do that into the future.

His covenant of love and that he is a God of his word.

You know what happens is discouragement starts to shrink

in your life when God begins to grow in your sight and becomes

your focus and then he calls them to resist, fight for your

brothers, your wives, your homes.

Verse 14 and Nehemiah's call here is one of holy resistance.

This isn't a passive waiting, not a a resignation or a thing

of defeat here, but an engagement to courageous

perseverance that he's calling them to.

And you know similarly, we're encouraged to fight to contend

as believers to contend for the faith.

The scripture says to contend, to fight for our marriages, to

fight for our children's faith, to fight for our purity, to to

fight for our church unity, to fight for our gospel witness to

have these been be things that we're we're firm on our

conviction to be solid in and we do this, this this fight through

what? Through scripture, through

prayer, through holiness, through obedience, through

humility, through community, through endurance and

perseverance. James 4, verse 7 comes to mind

James 4:7

on this point and it commands actually it says resist the

devil, submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and what he

will flee from you. And then lastly rely our God

will fight for US. Verse 20, you know the trumpet

system that Nehemiah set up, Yeah, that's going to unite them

and bring them together. But it also expresses their

faith that when we blow the trumpet, know this, God's going

to fight for us. And this is the theology of

Nehemiah 4. God doesn't remove the battle

from them. God joins his people in the

battle. The result we read it verse 15

is that God frustrated the plans of the enemy, brought them to

naughty the plot to nothing and God bless what they did.

And we see that the builders, they held a trail in one hand, a

sword in the other. They were constantly ready.

They they slept with their clothing on in, in the case that

the enemy might attack in verses 22 and 23.

And the idea was that that building and battling were

happening at the same time, that working and watching were taking

place, that praying and persevering in what God had

called them to was all a part of them.

And so Nehemiah's people here in verse 9, they had a heart to

pray in verse 6A, mind to work in verse 9, an eye to watch in

verse 20, an ear to hear. Isn't that cool?

And it's no wonder that the work succeeded when God was in it in

this way. So Nehemiah 4, as we finish,

calls us to recognise that opposition is a reality in our

lives and not to be seeing that as foreign or weird that it's

happening in our lives. But then to identify if

discouragement comes as a consequence of that and the

roots of that in our lives and and apply God's remedies out of

his word here in Nehemiah 4 to that.

Again, the chapter and all through this I'm going to take

us back to Jesus. Nehemiah is not the hero, though

as admirable and individual as he is, and we can certainly

learn lessons. The greater rebuilder is Jesus

the Christ. And so, like the people in

Jerusalem, Jesus faced mockery, didn't he?

Jesus was surrounded by enemies. Jesus was ridiculed by crowds.

Jesus bore the weight of sins, rubble and the destruction of

humanity. And Jesus entered the battle for

our souls. But unlike them, unlike you and

I, here's what Jesus didn't do. He didn't grow weary.

He didn't lose focus. He didn't surrender confidence

or bow to fear. And on the cross, Jesus bore the

ultimate opposition and discouragement, not to rebuild a

wall, but to rebuild broken people.

That's you and I. And so through his resurrection,

he now fights for his people. Through his spirit, he

strengthens his people. For his promises, he steadies

his people through his presence. He stands with his people.

So if you belong to Jesus tonight, your life has a safety

net far more secure than that of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It's his everlasting arms that are beneath you and around you

and will protect you forever. I'm going to give a final

application for you this week before we pray.

Maybe this week, identify one area of opposition that you're

facing, be aware of it and bring it to God in prayer.

And then secondly, spot the root of discouragement.

Is it fatigue? Is it frustration?

Fear of failure? I quit and then choose a remedy

that we see in Nehemiah. Maybe it's the reordering of

some things, setting up some structures in place that you

certainly need to remember God, resist the enemy, rely upon the

Lord's strength, and trust that God will frustrate the enemy's

plans as you keep building that which God has called you to.